So it turns out that a life of housewifery suits me! Well – The first week was good anyway. After returning from a wonderful weekend away in Napa I settled in to fill my days with pool time, sunshine, cooking and some wedding planning. And relocation to Australia planning … whaaaaat?! Yes! Word is out and it is official. We are moving back to Australia!Its been quite the year for us! This move to Laguna has been a blast but we’re pretty confident that the USA isn’t where we want to be forever so after getting married in December, we’re taking a 2 month honeymoon (yes you read that correctly) before relocating to Melbourne effective February 1, 2012. Wowsers!! Life is gooooooood!!
Anywhoooo I’m digressing – The first week of housewifery was a hoot. Although my days were not as empty as anticipated. Housewifery became even busier because Joep & I had some fun trips to get busy with. Joep had a work trip back to the Netherlands and I used his trip as an opportunity to visit one of my all time favourite people Julz in New Zealand! It is a travesty that I grew up in Australia right next door to New Zealand and yet have never been to this amazing country … I take solace in the fact that I grew up in Perth which is a looooong way from NZ and therefore feel moderately less ashamed of myself.
I’ve fixed that problem now though! On Sunday evening after a lovely weekend by the pool in Laguna Joep & I headed to LAX where we said goodbyes (**sniff sniff**) and boarded our respective flights to Amsterdam and Auckland.
Upon arrival in Auckland on Tuesday (yes, I lost a full day in transit … crossing the International Date Line mid-air!) I was greeted by the lovely and newly engaged Julz! The reunion was as full of excitement as all other reunions have been and we headed out to brunch immediately after dropping my bags at her sweeeeeet down town apartment. My first glimpse of Auckland was the north shore. It’s a pretty awesome first glimpse. The views of Auckland city as you cross the bridge on your way to Devonport are incredible. The city bears a striking resemblance to Vancouver (which you should all know is a city Joep & I loooove) with the biggest difference being that the water is a more incredible colour in Auckland than Vancouver. After a splendid brunch Julz headed off to work and I settled in for a bit of relaxing and to plan my week of fun in Auckland.
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the wonderful Auckland suburb of Parnell. It’s the oldest suburb of Auckland and jammed packed with cute little stores and delicious little cafes. Heaven! After enjoying a winters day stroll through the area (wearing only a little jacket … Canadian winters, I don’t think we are going to miss you!) I headed back to meet up with Julz and head out for a fun filled (read: beer filled) quiz night. Our team lost. Came dead last actually. But what we lacked in general knowledge we made up for in fun AND I kicked my jet lag in the butt on day 1 of the vacation. Something I have never done before!
Day 2 I was up bright and early to head out on a tour of one of the many islands in the Hauraki Gulf north of Auckland. Waiheke Island is incredible scenic and, most importantly, jam packed full of incredible wineries. The island is inhabited and a decent amount of Aucklander’s commute from Waiheke to the mainland daily for work. What a life! I spent a chunk of the day being bused around from winery to winery enjoying the sights of Waiheke. Very impressive.
The following day I had grand plans of checking out as much of mainland Auckland city as possible and what better way to do it than via a hop on hop off bus! There is seriously a lot to see and do in Auckland. I was informed by numerous Kiwi’s that the city is, and I quote, ‘the armpit of NZ’ – If this is an armpit then I cannot WAIT to come back and see more of this amazing country!! I checked out all the sights of the city from Mission Bay Lookout to Mount Eden, a volcano in the middle of the city … brief side bar: Auckland straddles the Auckland Volcanic Field, which has produced about 50 volcanoes! These take the form of cones, lakes, lagoons, islands and depressions, and several have produced extensive lava flows. Most of the cones have been partly or completely quarried away. The individual volcanoes are all considered extinct, although the volcanic field itself is merely dormant … meaning another eruption could technically occur at any time! Crazy huh? I thought so!
I also checked out the Auckland Museum and headed up the Sky Tower to check out the incredible views of the city while people bungee jumped from the top of the tower … crazy to see while sitting up there!
It was a pretty busy day but the fun didn’t end after the tour! I met up with Julz after work to go wedding dress shopping (for her, not for me … my dress is already picked and ready to be worn!) and then to head to a fashion parade for women’s lingerie. A LOVELY evening!!
Friday rolled around and the weather was the best it had been all week so I tried my luck with getting out to one more island … luck was on my side and by lunchtime I was on a ferry out of Rangitoto island! A brief lesson now … Rangitoto Island is a volcanic island in the Hauraki Gulf. It is 5.5 km wide and is an iconic and widely visible landmark of Auckland with its distinctive symmetrical shield volcano cone rising 260 metres high over the Hauraki Gulf. Rangitoto is the most recent and the largest of the volcanoes of the Auckland Volcanic Field. It is separated from the mainland of Auckland's North Shore by the Rangitoto Channel. Since WWII it has been linked by a causeway to the much older, non-volcanic Motutapu Island. You can tell the difference between the two islands super easily because Motutapu is lush and green and full of vegetation whilst Rangitoto is still predominantly made up of black volcanic rock.
Final bit of trivia that I found interesting, Rangitoto is Maori for 'Bloody Sky', with the name coming from the full phrase Ngā Rangi-i-totongia-a Tama-te-kapua ('The days of the bleeding of Tama-te-kapua'). Tama-te-kapua was the captain of the Arawa waka (canoe) and was badly wounded on the island, at a (lost) battle with the Tainui iwi (tribe) at Islington Bay.
So I spent the day touring around the island and learning heaps about its origins. It was GLORIOUS especially given that the weather was so good. As part of the tour we hiked up to the summit to check out the amazing views. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the colour of the water in the Hauraki Gulf is breathtakingly beautiful. Yowsers.
Upon arrival back in Auckland Julz & I changed quickly before heading out for dinner and drinks to watch the All Blacks play Japan in the world cup. Yes, things I have forgotten to mention so far. The Rugby World Cup is on at the moment and I was lucky enough to be in the hosting country / city! Clearly I am not a huge rugby fan or this would’ve been a bigger deal but, similar to the Vancouver Olympics (which we coincidentally enjoyed as house guests of Julz as well!), just being in the hosting city was pretty cool. The streets are full of people in party mode and everyone is proudly wearing their countries colours. A LOT of fun. This fun was further magnified on Friday night as Julz & I joined the revelers! After dinner and a few drinks we headed to the Cloud which is the epicenter of world cup partying in Auckland where we met up with Julz’ cousins (if you read my Amsterdam blogs you’ll know one of these cousins as Andrew … he is also a favourite!) for a night of frivolity. The hours that followed were full of beers, dancing and laughs. Evening highlight would have to be when, while following the lyrics of a song literally, Julz threw me over her shoulder (literally) and ran through the crowds high 5-ing people. It was no mean feat! We weigh probably the same amount so I was shocked that she was able to do it but when Julz sets her mind to something she sticks to it! Hilarious!
It was a wonderful evening that ended in the early hours of the following morning. Saturday morning rolled around with fuzzy heads for Julz and I but we were both relieved that Julz still had the ability to walk after her efforts the previous evening. Too funny!
Still, there was limited time for hungover misery because Julz was spoiling me rotten by taking me to visit her folks in Tauranga, The Bay of Plenty. Yippee!! So we packed up the car and hit the road stopping briefly to return cousin Andrew’s laptop (which he inadvertently left behind at the Cloud the previous evening …surprising considering that we’d spent the entire evening dancing around it as though it were an Indian fire … true story) and another stop to say H&G to Rog the future hubby of Julz! By early afternoon we had driven through the Waikato (a region south of Auckland that is a big basin and is seriously lush) and entered the Bay of Plenty. Interesting fact for you that Julz taught me – There is a spot on the North Island called the Bay of Sorrows which sounds awful but its actually a super luscious place that is ideal for growing crops. The Bay of Plenty, while beautiful is less suitable for farming. Why the ironic names then? I had the same question! Turns out, Captain Cook sailed to NZ and had run out of food / water so he came ashore hoping to find some supplies. At his first stop he was greeted by a community of Maori’s who scared the bejeeezus out of him and sent him packing pretty quickly … without any supplies. So he named that spot the Bay of Sorrows. He stopped again shortly afterwards at a spot where there were no scary Maori’s and he was able to restock. He called that spot the Bay of Plenty … pffft silly Captain Cook.
Either way however, I thought the Bay of Plenty was pretty beautiful! Julz parents are awesome! We were greeted with unmatchable warmth and settled in for a wonderful evening of eating, enjoying the spa (its geothermal … yup, I bathed in water from underground springs that is headed by volcanic action. I’m pretty awesome …), good wine and really really good chats. LOVELY! I now understand why Julz is so awesome … it clearly runs in the family.
The following morning we headed up the Mount Maunganui which is a beautiful peak facing the Bay. After walking the Mount we stopped at a café for coffee just in time for the heavens to open (perfect timing!). We then headed home to pack and hit the road.
A week in Auckland few by far too quickly! It was seriously a lot of fun as is always the case with Julz. My Sunday evening flight saw me landing in LA on Sunday afternoon (time traveler!) to meet up with the Joepinator … love being reunited with him!!
The next time I see Julz will be at our wedding in December! Eeeeeee!! Too much to look forward to. Not to mention that we’ll be living in Melbourne next year SO close to NZ that we can do numerous trips to the incredible land of the Kiwi!
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